Oil-Funded Bill Introduced to Force Through Tar Sands Pipeline

This Monday, Senator John Hoeven (R-ND), along with 44 co-sponsors, introduced a bill (S 2041) that grants Congress the authority to approve the Keystone pipeline, without the President's approval.

They are also considering attaching it to the Payroll Tax Cut again when it comes up in late February and to the Transportation Bill.

Who supports the pipeline? The American Petroleum Institute, the Association of Oil Pipe Lines, the Consumer Energy Alliance, the Independent Petroleum Association of America, the Industrial Energy Consumers of America, and the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association.

MapLight, which analyzes industry campaign contributions to members of Congress, finds that all but five of the senators who support the pipeline have the oil and gas industry among their top contributors.

19 of the top 20 recipients of campaign contributions connected to the Oil & Gas industry co-sponsored the bill.

Meanwhile, Canada's right-wing government is calling US non-profits that are fighting the pipeline "‘eco-saboteurs' and
‘radicals' who seek to ‘hijack' Canada's national interest." They are an 'adversary to the government of Canada, they say.

They are threatening to change the laws that define charitable status in Canada, which would make it impossible for groups to operate there.

The government says it's also exploring rules to make it harder for the public to participate in environmental review processes on projects like oil and gas development, and pipelines.